Ulissi, who rides for UAE Team Emirates, completed the 155 kilometres stage from Gstaad to Leukerbad in 3 hours 37min 31sec.

He delivered a powerful sprint at the summit finish to triumph ahead of Spain’s Enric Mas of Quick-Step Floors and The Netherlands’ Tom-Jelte Slagter of Dimension Data, the second and third-place finishers respectively.

BMC Racing Team’s Porte finished eighth and now holds a 20-second lead over Team Sunweb’s Dutch duo of Wilco Kelderman and Sam Oomen at the top of the general classification.

Team-mate Stefan Küng, who started the day as the overall leader, came in 3:23 down on Ulissi.

The Swiss is now 3:20 off the pace in the general classification.

Stage six is scheduled for tomorrow and is spread across a distance of 186km from Fiesch to Gommiswald.

Today also saw the opening stage of the British-based 2018 Women’s Tour take place with Belgium's Jolien D'hoore coming out on top in her first race since breaking her collarbone just three weeks ago.

The Mitchelton-Scott rider won in a time of 3:14.39 after a sprint finish on the 129.7km stage from Framlingham to Southwold.

It was only last month that she underwent surgery after breaking her right collarbone in a crash while competing in the madison at the Vier-Bahnen-Tournee in Dudenhofen in Germany.

Victory sees D’hoore claim her second successive Women’s Tour stage victory having won the last leg of the 2017 event in London.

Italy’s Marta Bastianelli of Alé Cipollini finished second today, while Team Sunweb's Coryn Rivera of the United States came third.

Tomorrow’s 145km stage will see riders cycle from Rushden to Daventry.

The 17-team event, which is now in its fifth edition, forms part of the International Cycling Union Women's WorldTour.